Harpal Singh Bedi
The upcoming sports university in Meerut will be named after Hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made this announcement at a mega ceremony in which presented a cash award of more than Rs 42 crores to the medal winners and coaches. Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra was awarded a cash award of Rs 2 crores.
Silver medalists Ravi Dahiya and Mirabai Chanu received Rs 1.5 crores while bronze medalist PV Sindhu, Lovelina Borgohain and Bajrang Punia received Rs 1 crore each.
The chief Minister also felicitated the men and women hockey teams. The bronze-medal winning men’s hockey team got Rs 1 crores for each member. The women hockey team was given Rs 50 lakhs for each member.
He also gave the cash award of Rs 50 lakh each to golfer Aditi Ashok and wrestler Deepak Punia.
At the same time, an additional incentive amount of Rs 25 lakhs was given to the participating players of Uttar Pradesh including Lalit Upadhyay, Vandana Kataria, Priyanka Goswami, Annu Rani, Seema Punia, Saurabh Chaudhary, Meraj Ahmed Khan, Arvind Singh, Satish Singh, Shivpal Singh.
Yogi said the Major Dhyan Chand University will play an important role in developing sports in the state. and added that his government will adopt two sports — wrestling and one more — and finance their promotion in the state for the next ten years,
”Of the two sports to be adopted by Uttar Pradesh, one will be wrestling. The second one for adoption will be selected soon by the Sports Department,” he said adding that the state government will construct a playground in every village and open a gym at every gram panchayat level.
To give access to the sports facilities to the rural-dwellers, the government has been building open gymnasiums and mini stadiums in even the remote villages. The diet money for players in sports colleges has been increased from Rs 250 to Rs 375 per day per player.
The government will appoint UP’s medalists in international sports events like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, World Cup and World Championships on gazette posts like that of deputy superintendent of police.